


A Star Brighter than the Universe

by Lavendarjosh



Category: Starfield (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Humor, Parody
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-22
Updated: 2018-11-22
Packaged: 2019-08-27 14:56:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16704664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lavendarjosh/pseuds/Lavendarjosh
Summary: Join the characters of Starfield on their suspense-packed journey through space and experience a story full of action, romance, drama, and crafting!





	A Star Brighter than the Universe

**Author's Note:**

> This work aims to retell the events of Starfield from a narrative perspective, and therefore contains major spoilers.  
> The game is far from being released yet, of course, but don't let that minor detail stop you from prematurely enjoying its story today!

He took my hand and pierced me with his steel blue eyes.

"Do you want to explore the unknown with me?"

 

**Chapter 1**

* * *

 

It had been four earth days since our visit to Nuntius Sol, a small but habitable planet in the N44 vector. As expected, the former residents were nowhere to be found, maybe the zorgs got them, maybe they had fled to safety, hard to say. There wasn't much of value to be found either, aside from a wacky securibot that had his work routines tinkered with, so we decided to scrap him for parts. But we did clean up the colony well enough to be repopulated again. If we'd actually were to find people who wanted to live there, that is. I guess I had to trust Desmond on that.

To be honest, I still had a hard time to settle into the whole 'Colonel of the Marines' thing that he'd sprung on me mere days after I stumbled out of that blasted cryo-prison, but then again, I guess it helped me find purpose. Purpose in a world unknown to me, a world without friends, without family....

I heaved a heavy sigh.

"Deep in thoughts again?" Tom threw a glance over his shoulder from his seat at the helm. "You gotta let go eventually, you know? No point in getting worked up over a past you can't change.

"I know, I know. It's just..." Another sigh escaped my lips. "How do you cope with being thrown into a world that's been fast-forwarded two thousand years to the future?"

"A bit over two thousand and ten, actually."

"You're not exactly helping."

"I know it's easy enough for me to say, but don't let it get to you, Red. You being the only one to make it out of that place alive, it's like a miracle. Like somebody's giving you a second chance at life. Don't go waste that chance feeling sorry for yourself."

"Can't say you don't have a point." I dragged myself over to the co-pilot seat. "Okay, change of topics. Is the ship holding out alright?"

"Oh, she's surprisingly feisty! I admit I don't really get all the technically stuff, or what those buttons here are for, or why the cables under that panel hang out and make this weird crackling noise, but I guess..." He shot me a smirk. "It just works!"

"Eeh, if you say so." I chuckled nervously, not sure if he was joking or not. "How long till we're back?"

"Well, our Interstellar Positioning System says two hours, but I'll get us there in one and a half if you're antsy."

"No need." I swung my legs on the console, careful not to touch any of the buttons we didn't know the purpose of.

I let my sight wander over to Tom, who looked both relaxed and focused piloting our tiny spacecraft through the endless void around us. We'd known each other for little more than a week and a half, yet I felt this inscrutable connection, like our paths had been destined to cross sooner or later. When we first ran into each other at the derelict refueling station just outside Haven, it was like I couldn't even make a conscious decision to just leave him there, as if it had already been decided he would be playing an important part in my story sooner or later. Apart from that, I'd soon learned to appreciate his help with carrying all that junk I almost compulsively collected.

To my embarrassment, I realized I was ogling at Tom's profile while thinking about us, ogling at his manly chin, his piercing eyes, how he occasionally ran his fingers through his brown, wavy hair. I couldn't really deny I found him pretty cute, attractive even, and when he looked over and gave me that sly smile of his, I felt more than just a little caught in the act.

I fixed my gaze forward again and tried to hide my flushed face flipping through the star charts on the front screen. Tom was right, though, I had to eventually shake free from my past and focus on the future. On rebuilding the Marines and helping the people, on exploring this unfamiliar world out there, and most importantly, I had to focus on following the only link that still connected me to my former life: I had to find Sean.

* * *

 

As we headed down from the small airship hangar to the Marine barracks in Haven, our home base, Desmond was already out to meet us halfway, wagging his imaginary tail.

"Good to see you back, Colonel!" He saluted. "I've already received the transmission you set up on Nuntius Sol and I'm sure it will draw attention from the nearby systems soon."

"If you think there's actually someone who'd want to live there..." I gave him a doubting smile.

"Well, you would probably have to fly back there at some point and set some basics up, food, water, beds. And the occasional laser turret, of course."

"Come on Desmond, surely they'll be able to bring their own beds, don't you think?"

"Why would they?" The look he gave me was one of utter incomprehension.

"You know, because they have spaceships..." Still no reaction. "Yeah whatever, glad to be of service. Now that's over with, I can finally go and explore the nearby planets at my leisure. I've got tons of unexplored points of interest on my IPS."

"Actually," he straightened himself like he always did when discussing something official. "Another colony needs your help."

"Seriously!?"

"Uhh, yes, that is why I'm telling you this. Because you are the Colonel."

"Can't you just, you know, deal with it yourself?" I groaned. "Get some men, take one of the ships?"

"But you are the Colonel."

"I know, but I wanted to..." I suddenly felt like I was arguing with a street light and threw my hand up in defeat. Desmond never took 'no' for an answer anyway. "So, what's it this time?"

"People on a nearby planet have asked the Marines for help with a marauder problem."

"Marauders, huh? I guess it's urgent, then."

"Uh, no." Another puzzled expression. "Why would it be urgent?"

"Because...they are in danger?"

"Technically, yes. But it can wait until you are up for it."

"What, you're telling me I can just go out exploring and eventually help them if I happen to be in the area by chance? That doesn't make sense."

"They're patient."

"...what?"

"They'll wait for you, don't worry. Be it one day or a hundred."

"No problem? They're not going to be murdered while I'm enjoying myself and then it's suddenly all my fault?"

"No problem at all." Desmond's smile actually creeped me out a bit. "And once you are back, I'm sure I will have another request at the ready for you!"

"Okay. Great." I rolled my eyes. "Anyway, send the coordinates to my Space-Boy and I'll see to it when I get around."

"Will do." He saluted goodbye. "Colonel."

Once we were out of sight and on our way to my home, I let out a sigh and shook my head in disbelief, provoking a chuckle from Tom. Instead of following my initial plan of punching his shoulder and telling him off, I took a moment to replay the scene in my head and couldn't help but to snicker at the bizarreness of what happened myself. Within moments, we were both snorting with laughter without ever exchanging a single word.

We had barely calmed down when we arrived at the shack I had cobbled together from what little had been left of Haven's ruins. I kicked the door open and flung my backpack in the corner, followed by my shoes and the red jacket of my convict uniform. For some reason, I still couldn't bring myself to wear anything else besides armor, and not just because it proved to be surprisingly comfy. Sitting down on the bed, I took a deep whiff of the stale, ozone-laden air. Despite everything, despite all those years that had gone by without me, it still smelled like home.

Looking around, I still could hardly believe I actually managed to single-handedly build not only a home for myself, but a whole settlement for Desmond and his Marine friends, barracks, food dispensers, water condensers, all that with nothing but scrap and an omnitool that had somehow found it's way into the ruins of my old house. But in the end, the physical labor really helped me get my mind off the whole 'being alone in an unknown, yet familiar world' thing the first few days.

"I'm sure Desmond means well, you know." Tom slouched into the dusty armchair I had salvaged from the rubble of an old hair salon.

"Yeah, I'm sure he does," I scoffed as I began sorting the new loot from our bags. "I just can't help being under the impression that I'm the only one who's actually doing anything around here, sometimes. I have to admit, it's mildly irritating."

"But you are the Colonel!"

"Oh shut up!" I playfully tossed a circuit board in his direction. "I'm not doing any of his errands anymore until I had a decent amount of time for my own plans."

"Fair enough. So you already know what we're up to next?"

"Kind of." I put the bag aside and turned to face him. "Remember the strange feline metal paw that trader on Fluvius Lignum told us about?"

"You mean the one he said those Marauders did steal from him? Sure I do, what about it?"

"I don't really know, but..." I absentmindedly played with a piece of ceramic heat plating. "But I just can't shake off the feeling that there's more to this thing. And that it wasn't just a coincidence that nothing else was stolen that day."

"Well, he _did_ give us the coordinates to that old alien burial site nearby, the one he assumed those thieves were headed to. You want to go check it out, maybe?"

"That's more or less what I was aiming for, yeah. Even if there's nothing else of interest to be found, we could still use the loot and fighting experience."

"You're the boss, Red." He made a mock imitation of Desmond's salute. "Wherever you go, I follow."

"Glad to hear it." I stood up and patted his head. "Now let's get some rest, I still have a few broken ribs from that zorg encounter that need to heal."

* * *

 

"Do you think you could be just a little more careful maybe, you're stomping around like an elephant." I jabbed Tom in the ribs. "There's really no taking the stealthy approach with you around, isn't it."

"Ouch, I'm sorry! I'm trying my best here." He rubbed his side. "What's an elephant, anyway?"

"It's...a pre-warp thing. Big gray animal with flappy ears and a long, tube-like nose."

"Sounds hideous." He scrunched his nose.

"The important part is that they are... _were_ not very graceful. Just like you."

"Pff, fighting's more my thing anyw-"

"Shh!!" I hushed him. "Heads down, I think I've heard something up ahead."

The deeper we went into the ancient burial site, the eerier the atmosphere became. The Marauders at the entrance had been easy pickings, although I would have preferred to sneak up on them instead of kicking down the front door. Still, I was amazed at how effectively my makeshift phase blaster had performed against our enemies, leaving nothing but piles of smoldering ashes behind. If I had known you can build one of those things out of common household appliances, I could have made a killing in my old life. And if I had been rich, maybe things would've played out differently back then. Maybe I wouldn't have been here now.

But it was hardly a time to hold onto such thoughts, not with the dangers of an alien grave looming all around us. The pressure plates and tripwires up to that point had been simple enough to avoid, but I knew for a fact that deceased did not mean inanimate for those that were laid to rest in here. We had to tread carefully if we didn't want to disturb their sleep. Of course, treading carefully was next to impossible with Tom around, and consequently, it didn't really catch me by surprise when he bumped against one of the braziers filling the room with an unholy blue light.

"Oh come on!" I hissed.

"Hey, it's not my fault everything inside here is so rickety it'll topple over the moment you do so much as graze by it."

But there was no sense in playing the blame game at this point. Roused from their eternal slumber, the withered alien corpses stacked into the walls started moving.

I was still busy cussing at my companion when Tom pushed me aside and downed the first zorg that had crept up on us from behind with his plasma knife. I fumbled out my gun and started firing in all directions, but all my shots missed their mark. Combat still wasn't very familiar to me, I never had to use a firearm in my old life, let alone to defend myself, but I did have an ace up my sleeve.

I took a deep breath and briefly recalled the weird dream I had in the first night after being freed from the prison. In that dream, I was standing in the ruins of the town I grew up in, and Sean was there, guiding me through a thick mist to some sort of alien altar. A red, pulsating light emitted from the runes drawn upon it, growing stronger until I was blinded completely and lost consciousness. When I woke up, I felt something mysterious resting within me, a power I could neither explain nor understand. Since then, I did my best to use our constant stream of battles to train my control over this enigmatic but deadly ability.

Once again, I focused my mind and let the red inside light flow out of me, entering a trance-like state that made the world around me move as it was encased in jelly. I took a look around. Three zorgs surrounded us, their claw-like hands raised to strike at any moment. In one fluid motion, I raised my weapon, carefully aimed for their heads, and let the light take over.

Withing the blink of an eye, their headless bodies slumped to the floor. Satisfied with the result of my deceiving display of skill, I holstered my blaster and gave Tom the thumbs up.

"You know, it still baffles me every time I see you do that." Tom ruffled his hair. "I mean, how do you even move that fast?"

"I don't really know," I shrugged. "I just do."

"You really like to keep your cards close don't you, Red."

"Yeah. What about it?"

"Nothing, I just..." He ripped the burial cloth off a zorg and stuffed it in his bag. "Listen, I know we're not here for loot or experience. At least not primarily."

I stared at him for a moment, but he didn't bother turning around.

"We're here because you're searching for answers."

"What makes you say that?"

"The face you made when we snagged that paw off the Marauder chief's corpse?" He finally turned his head to look at me. "I've never seen you look like that. An expression of worry and frail hope. And determination."

"You're awfully observant about the strangest of things, aren't you."

"Talk to me, Red."

"Now of all times?" I sighed.

"A time as good as ever. It's not like anything would just randomly waltz in here while we're distracted."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Well, it never happened before."

"True."

"And it doesn't really feel like combat anymore, either, doesn't it."

"Umm..." I took a moment to take in the atmosphere. "Now that you're mentioning it...you're right, it's strangely tranquil for a place full of enemies."

"See? We have all the time in the world." He smiled. "So, anything you want to share?"

"Well..." I prodded some of the blue glowing crystals from the brazier with my foot as if to buy time. "For starters, it's not that I'm actually trying to hide anything, I just never talked about it until now."

"Are you gonna beat around the bush or should we get a move on after all?" Tom's tone was more amused than annoyed.

"I'm searching for someone."

"For someone?" He gave me a confused look. "I thought everyone you knew was dead."

"It's been two thousand years, of course they're all dead!"! I kicked a crystal so hard it shattered on the opposite wall. "But not him, he's alive. I know it. I feel it."

"Whoa, slow down there. Who is 'he' and what makes you think he survived until now?."

"It's Sean, he's my..." I took a deep breath before continuing. "He's my cat."

"Your cat."

"Right, you wouldn't know. They're small and fluffy and have a cute paws and-"

"I know what a cat it, I just didn't think they'd get this old."

"They don't. He was in cryostasis with me, but they..." I stomped my foot in frustration, zorg bones cracking under it. "They took him!"

"Hold up, who's 'they'?" His eyes widened as the answer slowly dawned on him. "Wait, you don't mean..."

"The Academy."

"Come on," he chuckled nervously. "I know the Academy is the first thing that comes to mind every time something even remotely shady happens anywhere around here, but seriously, why would they steal your cat?"

"Desmond told me about it. How they collect samples of extinct species to experiment on, cloning them or who knows what. Think about it, who else would go to the lengths of breaking into an old pre-warp prison just to steal a damn cat?"

"I, uhh, have no idea?"

"And this thing here..." I pulled the metal paw from my pocket. "It's somehow connected to it all. I know how...crazy this may sound to you, but you just have to believe me."

"Sounds crazy, alright." He pondered for a moment, then shrugged. "But you know, stranger things have happened. If you really think Sean is out there somewhere, we might as well go and look for him."

"So you believe me?"

""I believe _in_ you, and that's enough for me. But, you know..."

"What?" My voice came out harsher than I had intended to.

"Instead of digging through alien ruins, why not ask an expert for help?

"An expert on the field of stolen pets?"

"Well, maybe not exactly pets, but someone who's known to find missing things, including persons and...such. I bet if there's anything to know about your missing cat, he's the one to know it.

"Okay, and who is that guy? Someone you know?"

"He's a detective from Emerald City. I've never met him myself, but I've heard stories. Seems like he's kind of an oddball, but hey, an expert is an expert."

"An oddball detective who may or may not know how to find a cat... Well, it's better than nothing, I guess. Thanks." I let out a long sigh. "Maybe I should've let you in from the start instead of going on this crackpot adventure, paw or not. I feel like an idiot now."

"Hey, we still don't know what we're going to find down here. You're looking for a cat, we're here for a cat's paw. It could mean nothing, but at least it's something to go by. And you know, those Marauders sure wouldn't have come here if they didn't think it was worth the trouble."

"You're right. Again. Whatever's down here is probably worth a look." I stood up and straightened myself. "Let's get going then, I think I'd rather have another fight than running circles inside my head."

"That's the spirit."

"And on our way back, I want you tell me all you know about Emerald city and that detective guy."

"Will do." Tom gave me a pat on the shoulder. "Now come on, we have zorgs to kill and loot to...uh, loot."

* * *

 

We relentlessly pushed deeper into the alien catacombs, killing zorgs left and right. This time, I was actually happy to have something to vent my frustration on, and the combination of Tom's blade and my gun, together with my mysterious ability, made short work of anything daring to stand in our way. Even my rising fear of running out of ammunition turned out to be unfounded, as we recovered more than enough energy cells from the various pots and urns cluttering the stone floors. How modern day ammunition found its way into century old ruins, though, that was another mystery I didn't have an answer to.

The low humming sound that could have been heard for a while now was slowly growing louder as we headed down a long, straight corridor deep into the vaults, sparsely illuminated by the pale-glowing lichen creeping along the rock-hewn walls. Although we surely weren't _that_ deep, the musty air around us seemed to be getting hotter with every step we took forward. I shoved the mental image of walking right into a blazing volcano aside and concentrated on the large metal doors my Space-Boy's light slowly carved out of the shadows in front of us. There was no visible lock or handle on the blank, tarnished steel, just a depiction of a horizontal dash on the left, and a large 'X' on the right door. A closer inspection revealed what strangely reminded me of a regular, but worn keypad, and a depression suspiciously shaped like a cat's paw print, below.

"Would you look at that!" Tom whistled. "Whatever's behind that door, I'm pretty sure it's important."

"I hope it's a fridge with a years worth of ice cream." I took the last sip of luke-warm water from my bottle. "The heat in here killing me."

"Maybe we should have brought the exo-suits after all. As much as I hate stomping around in them, at least they're well isolated."

"Whatever, let's just get this over with."

I fished the metal paw from my pocket and plugged it into the depression. After a faint clicking noise, the keypad lit up with a sickly green light.

"So?" Tom knocked on the door. "Is it open or what?"

"No, you dummy. We obviously need some sort of pass code."

"Hmm, how about one-three-three-seven?"

"You're free to try as you like." I pointed at the electrical coils jutting from the ceiling. "If you want to get zapped, that is."

"Oh. What now?"

"Now we take a closer look at the paw and realize there are numbers engraved on the backside. Nine, two and four.

"Well that was easy." He reached for the keypad.

"Not so fast." I grabbed his hand. "That's a little _too_ easy for my taste."

"So it's a riddle!"

"Kind of. There are spaces between those numbers and the signs on the door look like a multiply X and a minus dash. So if we put those together it's...just a simple equation, I guess."

"Hmm, nine minus two is seven, times four is...fourteen, twenty-one..." He was visibly struggling with the task, using his fingers to count. "...twenty-eight!"

"Um..." It almost broke my heart a little having to correct him after all the effort he'd put into it. "Actually, you have to do the multiplication first, than subtract that from the nine."

"What, why?"

"It's the basic order of operation." I raised an eyebrow. "Say Tom...did you even go to school?"

"Please, of course I did." He grinned "I was in the chess club!"

"If you say so... Anyway, the correct answer is one."

"Just one, huh. I have to admit, that's pretty devious, having to put all of that together and use the right formula to boot." He scratched his head. "Whoever build this must've been one hell of a mastermind."

I just stared at him blankly.

"Yeah...whatever, do I at least get the honors to press the button?"

"If you trust me enough to take the chance of being electrocuted, be my guest."

"Of course I trust you, Red."

He looked deep into my eyes for what felt way longer than necessary and for a moment there, I wasn't entirely sure if it was the heat or something else entirely that made my face burn up. Fixing me with his gaze, he reached for the keypad and pressed the one. Nothing happened.

"What now?" Tom's voice was oddly husky.

"You have to confirm." I was still unable to pull my eyes away from his. "Bottom right key."

"Oh."

The keypad accepted the next input with a friendly beep before the mechanism inside the walls churned to life, groaning and creaking under the weight of centuries of neglect. The moment the crusted doors were forced apart, a wave of dry air even hotter than what we had to endure so far almost brought us to our knees. The low humming noise from before was drowned out by a concert of chirping and clicking sounds coming from the rows and rows of wired electronic boxes in the room before us.

"What the..."

But I wasn't given time to process the situation. The moment we stepped inside, the doors behind us slammed shut, and on the floor, a lump of dust-caked cables began to stir. A bony hand was the first thing to emerge from the tangles, followed by a bespectacled ball of matted hair that only vaguely resembled a human head.

Tom was the first to shake off the initial confusion, dashing forward and ramming his plasma knife into the creature still trying to emerge from its cocoon. Every time the blade dug into the dessiccated flesh, the monster made a sound like blowing between two sheets of paper, hoarse and painful to the ears. By the time it had clawed itself to its feet, its withered body was already riddled with holes, yet the creature managed to raise its hands in front of it, lightning crackling between the fingertips.

"Watch out!"

Even with my warning, I knew Tom wouldn't be fast enough to escape whatever attack that thing had in store for him. And with all the cables and electronics around us, I couldn't afford to find out. In a feat of mental effort, I forced myself into concentration, slowing down time around me once again. Not willing to take any chances, I called upon all my luck I felt I had saved up for this very moment, aimed for the creature's arms, and let fate take its course.

A single shot was enough to rip both limbs from their socket, hurling them through the room and causing the sparks that had build up around them to fizzle out quietly. The monster's state of panicked incomprehension was quickly brought to an end by Tom's knife piercing its throat, dropping the lifeless corpse to the ground in a plume of dust.

"Whew, that was...actually kinda anticlimactic." He put his blade away and squatted down beside the fallen enemy. "Although you probably saved my butt with your little stunt there. Thanks."

"If you didn't start stabbing it like a berserker right away, I'm sure the fight would've been longer and more exciting."

"Hey, I'm not complaining. I'd rather mop them up quickly, it's not my fault it took so long to get on its feet. What's that thing anyway? It doesn't really look like a zorg."

I took a moment to have a closer look at the dead body, shoving aside the glasses with my foot only to reveal two hollow sockets beneath. But the mottled, oversized tee-shirt and jeans looked distinctively pre-warp to me, not what I would have expected to find on an alien planet far away from earth.

"I think it's...a human? A zombie or something like that."

"What' a human doing in here?"

"No idea, but he looks like he was from my time."

"That's impossible!" He looked at me for confirmation, but I wasn't as convinced as him. "I mean, probably."

"Honestly, I'm more interested in the fact that he looked like he was about to use...how did you call it?"

"Potency."

"Yeah, that. Although it feels more like magic to me, stuff from fantasy books and the like. Maybe he was a Wizard," I snickered.

"Another thing from your time?"

"Not exactly. Well, there was a tale that if you manage to get to thirty without..." I paused and took another look at the corpse. "You know what, that's beyond stupid, forget I said anything."

"O...kay? Anyway, only a few aliens can control potency, and I've never heard of a human being able to use it."

"Just another mystery then."

"Hm." Tom stood back up and looked around. "Speaking of mystery, what's with all that stuff in here?"

"I'm not an expert on this." I knocked on one of the clicking and blinking gray boxes. "But I think these are file servers. Digital storage devices."

"They're huge!"

"And old. It doesn't make sense that things like this are still around, but..." My eyes followed the cables to an unremarkable desk on the opposite wall. "If they're still in working order, maybe we can see what's on them."

I walked over to the desk containing nothing but a mouse, a keyboard, and an ancient but familiarly yellowed CRT-monitor. While the screen was black, the lights on the case under the table indicated that is was still running.

"What is all this?" Tom warily poked the mouse.

"It's a computer."

"You sure?"

"It's old even for my standards, but that's what they looked like back then." I pulled up the decrepit folding chair in front and sat down, not even bothering with the dust anymore. "Well, here goes nothing."

I switched on the monitor and hit the escape key to wake up the computer. The beeping and wheezing of the machine springing to life was hardly audible over the noise filling the room, and when an image finally appeared on the screen, it was nothing but a single line of text reading "Are you the Chosen One? y/n"

"Well, that's weird." I tapped my foot, suddenly feeling rather nervous. "I mean, I expected it to be password protected or something, but...I don't know, something feels off."

"Maybe we should just leave it alone, then. It wouldn't be worth much anyway if it's really as old as you say."

"No, no, it's...nothing. I think the heat's finally getting to me." I sighed. "We made it this far, now I want to know what the heck is going on here."

I brushed the dust on the keyboard aside to find the Y key and pressed it, still a bit uneasy but hoping for the best. The text blinked a few times, then disappeared. I was just about to say something, as an image of a tabby cat playing with a ball of yarn filled the screen.

"Hehe," I snickered. "So the chosen one gets to see a cat picture, not ba-"

Before I could finish, a new one popped up, this time a black cat lounging on a kitchen chair.

"Seriously, this I pretty weir-"

And another one.

"I don't thi-"

And another. Every time the cat on the screen changed, it completely grabbed my attention for a split-second, and as the frequency of new cats increased, I was soon entirely captivated by the imagery in front of me.

"Red?" Tom grabbed me by the shoulder, but I was unable to reply. "Hey, are you okay?"

The torrent of ever faster flashing cat images bombarding my retinas made me feel lightheaded, and my vision narrowed to a tunnel. I hardly noticed Tom making a fuss behind me as the background noise was replaced by a ringing in my ears growing louder by the second.

"Red? RED ANSWER ME!"

The last thing I registered was Tom frantically trying to tear me away from the computer as I clawed myself to the desk with all my might. Then, I blacked out.

* * *

 

"Come on, wake up already."

Soft slapping on my cheek pulled my consciousness back to the world of the living. I tried to pry my eyes open, but even the dim light around me was blinding like the mid-day sun. Every sensory organ in my body felt like it had yanked itself free and run an a marathon before regretfully crawling back to me.

"Yeah..." I croaked, bringing my hand up to shield my eyes. "I'm there."

"Man, finally! You gave me one heck of a scare there, you know!" Tom voice sounded caring rather than anxious.

"Sorry." I peeked at my surroundings through my fingers. We were obviously still in the tomb, but the air was a lot cooler. "What happened?"

"You were staring at the cat pics and stopped reacting, so I tried to pull you away, but then you started to shake violently. I didn't know how to turn that thing off, so tried to rip off the screen instead, but there was some kind of force field that sent me flying through the room in response. Man, this pre-warp tech is something else, I tell you."

"That's...not normal."

"Anyway, eventually that thing shut itself down and you slumped from the chair, so I picked you up and got the hell out of there. Lucky for us, there was a working elevator in the corner that brought us right back to the entrance."

"So that's where we are."

"Yep, carried you all the way." He cracked a proud smile. "Oh, and I pricked you with a medpak, but it said you didn't need any healing."

"How long?"

"Granted, it was only about fifteen feet to the elevator and maybe another twenty-five to the mercenary's camp here, but you're heavier than you look, you know that?"

"No, I mean how long was I out."

"Oh, that. Um, about half an hour, I think. Are you feeling alright?"

"Barely." I scrambled to my feet, with Tom's help. "But as long as we don't have to fight again, I'll manage."

"You take it easy now. If anything happens, I'll handle it."

But to my surprise, as soon as I was in the upright again, my ailments quickly vanished and within moments, I was feeling fit as ever. On our way back to the ship, Tom still pelted me with inquiries about my wellbeing, but I was deep in thoughts again, all revolving around a single question: what the hell happened?

Back at our spacecraft, and after spending at least five minutes talking Tom out of me having to rest in the bunk, I took my usual spot on the co-pilot side, swinging my legs on the console. There was no point incessantly banging my head against the same topic as long as there were no answers to be found. At least one thing I was dead certain about after today. Sean really was out there and it wasn't just a coincidence that he was taken from me. But to find him, I needed help, experience and first of all, a clear head. So for now, I'd turn my attention to more immediate questions.

"Hey." I nudged Tom with my foot. "Seriously, though."

"Hm?"

"You were in the chess club?"


End file.
